Forgiveness
by JustJustine014
Summary: The key to forgiveness is reconciliation between two parties, but who know if it'll ever happen between these two.
1. Accusations

_"You're a backstabbing deceitful person, just like your father."_ Those words rang in her head over and over.

Hurt. Pain. Confusion. Betrayal. Emma felt all these emotions wash over her at the same time. She felt pain from the sudden "bomb" Troy had dropped. Out of nowhere, he had unexpectedly lashed out on her. She felt hurt at the way Troy had treated her. He ignored her for weeks, roughly brushing her aside as if she wasn't there to begin with. A sense of extreme confusion often overwhelmed Emma, resulting her in being wide awake every single night. Even now, Emma could clearly remember the several nights of silently crying herself to sleep. He had accused her of being a distrustful, deceiving, liar. In a way, she felt like it was true due to her risky plan, but at the same time, she knew that needed to do it. What kind of friend and teammate would she be if she left her friends in the enemy's hands? After thinking about it for awhile, Emma understood a few of Troy's points; however, that didn't give him the right to act the way he did.

 _"You're a backstabbing deceitful person, just like your father."_

Now, the emotion Emma felt strongest for was betrayal. He didn't even try to understand Emma's reasons for her actions. She had tried desperately to try and talk to him, but he would refuse every time. Troy used to be the only other person that she fully trusted, the other person being Gia of course. But now, she didn't even know what to think. All she felt was hurt.

"Hey girl." Emma was snapped out of her thoughts by a mysterious gruff voice. She turned around and saw Niko. Emma recognized him from her English class, but she also knew that he had at least hundreds of detentions, and remembered him being suspended a few times too. Before things got too far, Emma closed her locker and darted to the other side of the hall. She thought if she walked fast enough, she could somehow find Gia and go home. The school day was finally over and she just wanted to go home.

Emma was only able to walk a few steps away until Niko stepped in front of her.

"C'mon Em, you and I could really hit it off. I mean look at me, I'm a pretty good looking guy. Who wouldn't want all of this? He gestured to himself and winked

"No." Emma said flatly as she attempted to walk away.

Niko growled in anger. No one should have dared to turn down Niko, the hotshot. He always got what he wanted, no matter how he got it. He stomped over to Emma and roughly grabbed her arm.

He smirked and whispered into her ear "Maybe you just need a trial run."

Niko dragged Emma to the corner of the hall where hardly any students passed by. Emma tried pulling free, but she was still recovering from the mini nuclear explosion. Ever since the explosion, Emma had felt moments of weakness come and go. Gia had complained about the same thing, so Emma never thought much about it. She thought that it was nothing serious, so she would let it pass by. But, it proved to bite her in the butt as it started to mess with her physical capabilities.

Niko held Emma tight with one arm and started wandering down her back with the other. Emma's eyes widened in as she realized what he was going to do, but couldn't bring herself to move; she felt paralyzed in fear. His hand slowly breached her pants and that's when Emma had enough. There was no way she was going to let some guy take advantage of her like this. If Emma couldn't fight back, then she would at least try whatever she could to get herself out of this mess.

"Help!" Emma screamed to the top of her lungs. Next thing she knew, she was aggressively pushed down to the ground.

"You weren't supposed to do that you bitch! That's it, you're so…" Niko didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before he sent sprawling onto the floor.

Emma looked up to her savior, expecting it to be one of the guys, or Gia. To her surprise, it was actually an unfamiliar face. He was wearing a black V-neck under his open leather jacket, black skinny jeans, and topped it off with a pair of black and white converse. He had dark brown hair that was styled up in the front along with a pair of light brown eyes. When she looked closer at his face, she saw a mystery in his eyes. She couldn't describe why, but she wanted to solve that mystery.

On the other side of the school, Gia had heard her friend's scream for help and had rushed to the sound of her voice. By the time she got there, a wave of students had already crowded the area to find out what was happening. Gia pushed through the crowd and found her best friend on the ground, Niko cradling his jaw, and some random guy helping Emma up.

"Emma, are you okay?" She took her friend from the random man and checked her for any serious injuries.

"Yeah, I'm good." Emma brushed past Gia and looked for the guy who saved her. She furrowed her brow when there was no sight of him anywhere. He deserved a proper thanks, but Emma couldn't do that if she couldn't find him. Suddenly, a loud voice echoed through the halls.

"Clear the halls!" A voice boomed. Everyone immediately scattered at the sound of Mr. Anderson, the school's strict principal. He was known for his extreme intolerance towards idiotic misbehavior. If he saw someone acting out, that student would have to face his wrath.

"Mr. Palmer, I would like to see you in my office."

"But sir…"

"NOW!" Mr. Anderson yelled while pointing to his office door. He watched Niko drag himself to his office before walking up to Emma and Gia. He specifically looked at Emma with a stern, yet gentle face.

"Are you alright Miss Goodall?" Emma nodded nervously.

"I saw everything through the security cameras and I assure you that Mr. Palmer's actions will not be tolerated. You will be getting an from him apology later." He gave Emma a gentle pat and walked to his office to deal with Niko's punishment. A few moments later, Gia saw the boys walking towards them.

"What just happened?" Noah asked. Him, Jake, and Troy were just coming out of Chemistry when they heard Emma's plea. It took them a while to find her, but at least they found her. However, Troy obviously looked like he didn't want to be there. His body language spoke volumes. His back was turned, his muscles were tense, and his facial expression screamed annoyance.

"I don't even know." Emma ignored Troy's actions and shrugged her shoulders. "One moment I'm at my lockers, the next moment Niko is trying to get his hands in my pants. I screamed for help and then Niko decided to test how hard the floor was with my body."

"And you're not freaking out about this because…" Gia trailed.

"It's high school, what do you expect? He's just some boy that I'll probably never see again anyways. Plus, I don't really feel like dealing with it, so I might as well just leave it. What happened, happened, so I'm just gonna move on."

"Did you at least beat the crap out of him?" Jake asked.

"Actually, no." Emma frowned, remembering the mysterious guy who had saved her. "I don't know who the guy was, but he technically saved me."

"Do you know what he looked like?"

"Um.." Emma closed her eyes in an attempt to try to remember her savior. "He had a black shirt under an open leather jacket along with brown hair that's styled up in the front."

"Well that only narrows it to a few hundred guys at this school." Noah frowned.

"Whatever dude," Jake smiled. "Let's just be glad that Emma's okay."

"Really Emma?" Troy scoffed. "That's the best that you could come up with?"

"You better stop there Troy." Gia warned. Even though weeks had passed by, Troy was still acting out. He purposefully avoided Emma as much as possible and when he did see her, he did nothing but belittle her.

"I mean really Emma, we had our fight a couple of weeks ago. You obviously came up with this sob story to make me feel bad for you." Troy rolled his eyes. "Then you made up some story about a pretend guy that saved you just to make me jealous."

"I didn't! It was all true!" Emma was starting to get fed up with his attitude and glared at him. "If I made it up, then explain why Niko is in the office getting punished."

"Niko always gets in trouble, he practically lives in the office."

"Why would I scream for help then?"

"To get our attention." Troy shrugged his shoulders.

"Gia saw most of it happen." Emma turned to her friend. "Can you explain what…"

"No need to." Troy cut her off. "She's your best friend, she'll just probably agree with anything you say, no matter if it's true or not. Just admit it Emma, you're just lying to yourself now. There's no need to make up any more lies. You already proved what you are."

Emma had enough of his crap and stormed out of the school. Troy watched her leave and shrugged his shoulders. "What?" He looked around and saw three pairs of angry eyes watching him. All he did was say what was on his mind.

"Dude, that was totally uncalled for." Jake frowned. He remembered his talk with Troy from a while back and knew where his anger came from, but that didn't justify Troy's actions. Once again, he was taking things way too far.

Gia watched her friend go and looked back at Troy. She desperately wanted to help Emma, but she knew she had to do something about Troy's attitude first. This whole thing wasn't going to get solved until she got into the root of the problem.

Gia looked at Jake and Noah and asked, "Can you follow her please? Don't ask her any questions, or even say anything, just please make sure that she gets back to my house safely. I'll catch up later."

The boys gave her a soft smile and nodded. They would ask questions later, but for now, they would make sure that their pink friend was alright.

Once they were gone, Gia faced Troy with a look to kill. Even the might red ranger shivered at the sight of her glare."You're coming with me red boy." Gia growled and dragged Troy outside of the school building.


	2. Realizations

While Jake and Noah escorted Emma home, Gia decided to take Troy to the park, hoping that the peaceful scenery would calm him down a bit. She dropped Troy on the bench near the water fountain and stood in front of him.

"Alright," Gia spoke with her arms crossed. "Spill it."

"This is none of your business, Gia."

"It is when you hurt my best friend! You've done nothing but act like a total dick to not only her, but the entire team!"

"I don't need this." Troy got up from the bench and started to walk away, but Gia roughly shoved him back down.

"What the heck!"

"You're not going anywhere until you say what's on your mind. Things aren't going to get any better if you keep all that in."'

Troy rolled his eyes. "Were you not listening earlier back at school? I already said what was on my mind. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a chemistry test to study for." Once again, Troy attempted to get up, but was met with the same result. Troy groaned as his butt hit the rough wooden bench.

"Why should I even talk to you? You're like Emma's ultimate guard dog. Actually, I'm surprised you haven't torn me the shreds yet."

"Well you're not making it any easier." Gia rolled her eyes. So far, his choice of words made it seem like he was begging for an ass kicking. Saying that Gia was furious at Troy was an understatement. She had trusted him with Emma's heart, and he took it, just to stomp all over it. If she had it her way, his body would already be six feet under the ground. Unfortunately, this wasn't why she was here.

"Look, I just want to know why you're acting out. Don't make this any harder than it has to be. "

"You're making it seem like I'm the bad guy." Troy scoffed.

"Well you're certainly not acting like a good one. And that attitude of yours isn't making this any better for yourself."

"I'm not the one who fought against the team!" Troy stood over Gia in an attempt to intimidate her, but all he received was a glare that could pierce through metal.

"Did you forget that Jake and I fought against you too? We said and did some pretty horrible things too, and you know that! I don't see you getting all up on us for that."

"Yeah, but you and Jake were controlled by Vrak. Emma willingly lied to us. She lied to the team. She hurt them on purpose."

"Oh, boo hoo, cry me a river. Emma willingly put her life on the line for us and that's what you're thinking about? What do you think Vrak would've done if he found out Emma was faking? Peacefully set her free?"

"She put our lives on the line!"

"She did it to protect you guys!"

"She put you in danger! He screamed.

"She saved us!"

"She hurt you!"

"No, she hurt you!" Gia finally yelled back. This was getting ridiculous; no one was truly at fault here. There was no reason for anyone to be mad. Troy had the right to be worried. Emma had put herself in a dangerous situation, but it did work out in the end. There was no reason for him to take it as far as he did.

Troy's entire body softened as he heard this. Deep down, he knew that Gia was right, but he had been too angry to reason out. Emma had put herself and the team in an immense amount of danger, but did it for the sake of their safety. Her actions were anything but selfish, they were selfless.

"But…I…You're…" Troy sighed in defeat. "You're right." When Troy found out that Emma seemingly ran off to Vrak, his heart broke. The girl he put his heart into had potentially betrayed the team and him. Before he knew it, the worry and shock had turned into bitterness and anger. His cold actions and words towards her was something he never should have done. But he couldn't stop himself.

"I'm such an idiot." He muttered as he dropped his face to his hands.

"Pft, I'm not denying that." Gia scoffed. She looked down at Troy, proud that she was able to get him to admit his wrongful doings. Now she just needed to patch everything else up. "You need to talk to her. You need to apologize for everything you've said and done."

"How can I even face her? She'll never talk to me after everything I've done. I don't know how I'm gonna do this."

"You ask her." Gia shrugged. "I'll even talk to her and explain that you're not angry anymore. Knowing Emma, she'll at least give you a chance to explain yourself. Something you never did."

"I don't deserve this," Troy sighed. "I don't deserve a second chance. And I certainly don't deserve Emma's forgiveness."

"Duh." Gia said. "Ugh, can't you just be grateful that you're getting a second chance. I don't care if you guys make up or not. To be honest, I don't trust you with Emma anymore. In fact, I don't think I ever will, especially after seeing the way you've treated her these past few weeks. But the both of you need to talk. If not, it's just going to tear the both of you up in the inside. I've seen what it's done to Emma; I'm not going to let it continue anymore."

"But what do I say? What do I do?" Troy felt himself getting more and more nervous. He didn't know how he would confront Emma after everything he did to her. Troy couldn't think of any words that would justify his actions; no words would.

"For goodness sake," Gia groaned. "Don't ask me. This is your problem. You need to be the one who comes up with the words, not me. What, did you expect this to be easy?"

"I was hoping for help?" Troy said with a questionable tone.

"I'm just here to make sure you talk to Emma. Now that I know you will, my job is done."

"Can I talk to her now?"

"Are you stupid?" Gia asked. She was starting to get impatient. All she had to do was convince Troy to talk to Emma calmly, not play a game of twenty questions. "You expect her to listen right after your last comment at school? Oh, and don't forget about the other remark you said to her about a certain Mr. Goodall."

Troy winced slightly at the mention of Emma's dad. Great, now he had another thing on the list to apologize for. Now that Troy's head was screwed on right, he realized how wrong he had been. He had no right to compare Emma to her father. They were different in every single aspect.

"I was hoping you would go talk to her before I do."

"And I will, but can't you at least wait for her to get a clear head first? Unless you want to be Emma's new punching bag, I suggest you wait."

"So I can't talk to her now?"

"What do you think?"

"Yes?"

"Do I have to punch you?" Gia asked, ready to raise her fist. It was like he wasn't paying attention to what she was saying. Either Troy was really anxious, or he was just really stupid.

"I'm going home now."

"Good decision."


	3. To Make Things Right

A few days had passed since Gia and Troy had their conversation. Like Gia promised, she managed to convince Emma to at least try and talk to Troy. Though she was reluctant at first, Emma had ultimately agreed to Troy's request after hours of pleading from Gia. Her only condition was that Gia was nearby just in case something happened. Emma was willing to speak to Troy, but she wanted someone nearby in case Troy had another outburst. There was no way Emma could take another verbal hit like that. It was too painful the first time.

Troy requested to meet up with Emma at the same spot they were at during Dizchord's first attack. That way, they were out in an open yet isolated area. Plus, the both of them knew that place pretty well. Emma went there often to visit her mother and Troy usually had his morning jog in that area. Gia hung back and stayed towards the trees so Troy and Emma could talk in private. She was still close enough to see if the talk escalated to the point of her needing to step in, but also far away enough to not hear a word they were saying. Honestly, she was hoping that she wouldn't have to step in. As much as she hated Troy for what he did, she did want to see them reconcile. Troy's remark about Emma's father had opened up a deep wound for Emma. Just when Emma thought she was finally getting over what happened, Troy's comments had pushed her back down again, along with giving her more uneeded problems. Emma deserved an apology and explanation so everyone could finally move on. Sure things would be rocky for a little while, but at least she had the comfort of knowing that things would get better over time.

By the time Troy arrived at their agreed location, he already saw Emma sitting down next to a pink blossom tree. He took a deep breath and nervously walked towards her. He still had no idea how this was going to play out, but he knew one thing for sure, he needed to make things right. His comments and actions had been out of line. They were a result of uncontrollable anger and mixed emotions, but that was still no excuse. No one deserved to be treated like that.

"Emma, I'm so sorry." Troy started off. He took one quick look at Emma and saw how red and puffy her eyes were, signaling that she had been crying for some time. Immediately, he looked away and began to stare at the ground. He couldn't bare to bring himself to look at her in the eye; he had done her wrong.

"I never should've…"

"Do you see that grave over there?" Emma cut him off and pointed to the flower filled tomb next to her.

"Yeah, but…"

"That belongs to my mother. The mother whom I love and still love today. The sweet, caring, loving mother who properly raised me until her dying breath."

"Okay…"

"My father," Emma continued. "Does not exist. He dissapeared a long time ago. The disgusting man you saw getting arrested at my house was a complete stranger. He is in no way my father and there is no way I am related to him at all. There is nothing that I could have possibly gotten from him."

"I didn't mean it." Troy said. He started to understand what she was getting at, but he was also afraid of what was going to happen next. He knew that she was going to be pissed at him for his remark about her father, but he didn't know how she was going to handle it.

"You didn't mean it?" Emma rolled her eyes. "I'm pretty damn sure that it sounded like you meant it. Especially the 'you're just like your father' one."

"I know it was completely out of line. I shouldn't have…"

"And do you know what hurt the most?" Troy looked down in shame. He knew he deserved this, but the guilt was starting to eat him up.

"You didn't even try to understand." Emma stood up and looked at Troy straight into his eyes. "You had your outburst and then left. Instead of trying to hear my side, you assumed the worst. I thought you would have given me at least some benefit of the doubt. After everything we've been through, I thought you of all people would have at least given me a chance."

"I was hurt, Emma. I felt betrayed when I found out about your plan." Troy said quietly.

"How do you think I felt?" Emma began to raise her voice. "I tried to save our friends and went through hell to do it! Then when I come back, you give me hell again! How dare you even try to feel betrayed! And how dare you bring my _father_ up!"

"It's not just that, Emma! I thought you willingly went to Vrak and brought the antidote with you."

"Thought. You thought, Troy. See! You never even tried to ask me instead, you accused me!"

"And I'm sorry! Emma, I'm so sorry." Troy desperately pleaded. He knew that she probably wouldn't forgive him, but she did deserve the whole truth. As much as he wanted to be forgiven, he had to give her the entire story too, even if it ruined his chance of forgiveness. "But when it seemed like the girl I loved betrayed me, I lost it. I couldn't control myself anymore."

"Loved?" Emma quesitoned. She knew that Troy had a crush on her, but love? Love is a strong word, it's not something that someone would just casually throw around. "You loved me?"

Troy released a big sigh and slowly nodded his head. "And I still do. It was the reason why I acted out so poorly. The love and worry I had for you quickly turned into disgust and anger. Before I knew it, the emotions became too hard to stop, so I just let it go on. I know this isn't an excuse, but I feel like you needed to know why I said those things. I didn't mean them at all. I just wanted to say things that would hurt you."

Troy anxiously waited for Emma's response, but nothing came out. He didn't know what was worse; this long silence, or finding out out Emma's thoughts. The suspense of long silience filled the air for a moment until Emma finally spoke.

"I forgive you," Emma bluntly said.

Troy's jaw dropped and his eyes popped out at in shock. There was no way Emma could have forgiven him so quickly and so easily after all that. After everything Emma said, Troy was expecting it to take weeks, maybe even months, before Emma even thought of forgiving him. He was ready for the hell he would've gotten. In fact, he was expecting Gia to come and beat the crap out of him any moment. But then Emma said he forgave him.

"I don't deserve this. I don't deserve your forgiveness, especially not this fast."

"You didn't let me finish." Emma said. "I'll forgive you, but under one condition."

"And that is?" Troy asked. He was over the moon when he heard that he was about to be forgiven. She had one condition, but Troy was willing to do anything. But he didn't expect this.

"I'm going to give you the chance you never gave me, but from now on, we're nothing more than friends. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Yeah, sure. No problem."

"And we'll never be more than friends."

Troy's heart sunk as those words came out of her mouth. He thought that maybe admitting his love would help repair their relationship, not crush his love life. Emma saw Troy's devastated expression and spoke quickly.

"This is exactly why we can't be together. We're in the middle of a war, Troy. There's no room for a relationship between us."

"But..."

"No, no buts. Your emotions obviously affected how you acted, and that's because you loved me. This is a matter of life or death, we can't waste our time fighting each other like this. So now we're going to avoid it by not having feelings for each other." Emma saw that Troy was still hurting so she continued, hoping to at least cheer him up a little bit. "However, I would love for us to be friends again." She knew that this would hurt him deeply, but needed to get this said and done with. What she was saying was harsh, but it was also true. But then again, he should've been thankful that he was at least going to be forgiven.

"Alright." Troy sighed. "I get it. What you're saying is true, I guess I should just be happy with you forgiving me. I know I don't deserve it, so... thank you."

"I'm sorry it had to happen this way." Emma really did care for Troy, but like she said, they were fighting in a war. They would never win if they were so busy fighting each other. No one wanted something like this happening again.

"Well, if that's all you have to say, then I guess I'll be on my way." Troy said sadly as he started to slowly walk away. He was happy that he got to talk to her, he just hoped it ended differently. His parents always said that his first love wouldn't be his last, but that was a lie. He would only have one first, and that first was Emma. Nothing and no one could ever replace her in his heart. But she was right, he needed to move on. If he wanted things to get better, then he would have to force himself to move on, no matter how much it would hurt him.

Emma watched Troy leave with a heavy heart. She had feelings for him, but after seeing Troy's outburst, she knew that she needed to end things before it got worse. All of this escalated because of Troy's love for her. If she kept this going, then things would just get harder. Emma was about to make her way towards Gia, but noticed she wasn't there anymore. She looked around at where Gia was supposed to be, couldn't find her friend anywhere. Suddenly, she heard a cry of pain and rushed to the sound of it. Panic overcame Emma until she saw what was happening.

"What the hell?" Emma found Troy on the ground holding his stomach and Gia smiling proudly. Gia turned to her best friend and smirked. "What? You thought I would let him off easy? Oh, and he told me you forgave him, which by the way I'm sorta shocked, but I just had to get him back for earlier. Just be glad that I didn't aim for the face, or else he'd really be in pain."

Emma chuckled at Gia's actions and helped Troy up. "Are you okay?"

"Never been better." Troy responded while holding his stomach, pain evident in his voice. "Can't say that I didn't deserve it though. Actually, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner."

Gia and Emma looked to each other and laughed. "Ready to go?"

"Now I am." Gia answered. Emma rolled her eyes at her friend's response and grabbed her by the arm. She dragged her off to the car, but not without a small smile escaping her lips. She was happy to have someone who she could trust everything with. Someone who was always fighting in her corner, no matter what the circumstances were. When they got inside the car, Emma turned to her friend and smiled. "Thanks for always having my back."

"Anytime."

AN: I was really happy to see that there were a few more different reviewers. It made me really happy, and I'm glad to hear the positive feedback. Even if you're just a guest, I would still love to hear from you guys and get a new review. It encourages me to keep writing, and it'll help get those chapters out faster! Hope to hear more from you guys! :)


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